Although it could be possible but it is not going to happen.

So with all the debates about the resolution and frame rates, an avid fan asked 343 Industries franchise director Frank O’Connor whether Halo 2 will be rendered in 4K resolution. The argument that the fan put forward was that the original Halo 2 was designed for what was a mid-spec PC in 2001.

“Yeah, we won’t be doing that, for about a hundred reasons that include the frame buffer switch,” Frank replied on NeoGaf. “And it wouldn’t really be a cinch regardless, there’s more afoot than simply turning up the settings. I’m sure it would be possible. But it ain’t happening. However, I saw little tiny gaps in the jungle canopy on Halo 3 that weren’t visible before. As I was doing that whole, “ooh look up at the sun through the trees” thing you do on Halo games.”

He further defended his claim that the graphics in the Ascension multiplayer map has already been improved a lot. “Ascension IQ is already substantially improved since E3, including anti-aliasing,” he stated.

Halo: The Master Chief Collection is due this November exclusively for the Xbox One.

I think the “frame buffer switch” relates to the 2 engines that is “switchable” to the gamer. New enhanced engine, or the old one. But, who cares about the older engine, if u can hit 4k without that old engine, and without scrapping a ton of graphical elements, please DO IT! No need for a crappy old engine to switch back n forth between. Xbox owners need to push them to drop an update, next year for MCC with 4k. Flood Phil’s twitter. The fact he said CAN be done…………man what is the “frame buffer switch” he’s referring to?

Alucai Vivorvel

It’s as you said, the switchable graphics engines. Both are running at the same time, so it takes up more resources. True they could just take it out but I think that the feature in Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary for the Xbox 360 was pretty popular. Eventually switching back and forth got old, I’ve played the originals enough times to know what they looked like thanks.

At the same time, I don’t think market adoption for 4K TVs is high enough to justify scrapping an enjoyable, if novel, feature that they knew would be in the game from the start. Give it another year or two, then we’ll hopefully see more developers striving for 4K content.

Mark

That makes sense. I guess 343’s figuring in the 4k adoption rate as well. But gimme 2k over that old engine as an option. I’d love it. Wanna experience what PC players see……without spending what they do!

Alucai Vivorvel

Lol, good luck with that. By the time console optimisation catches up to the raw power of PCs, they’ll already be visibly out of date!

However, that’s not to say the console games won’t look pretty or amazingly beautiful. With the right combination of programming trickery and art style, console games can easily be gorgeous.

But your typical life stimulation or modern military shooter (or pretty much any multiplatform game with a non simplistic art style) will almost invariably look better on PC, provided the publisher doesn’t hobble it. >_>

Mark

Exactly. It’s more than shocked me to see how Ubi trashed the PC version of WD for Sony. Woww

Ryan Kosior

This is a stupid question. Not a single game for next gen is or will be capable of 4K. Neither the X1 or the PS4 can handle that.